It's getting to be crunch time for Ann Arbor officials to decide whether the city should purchase the Edwards Brothers property on State Street.

So, it comes as no surprise there's a resolution on Monday's City Council agenda that, if approved, would have the city exercise its right of first refusal to acquire the 16.7-acre site at 2500 S. State St. for the same $12.8 million the University of Michigan offered to buy it for late last year.

At this point, it's unclear if the item on Monday's agenda is anything other than a placeholder to have a discussion about purchasing the property. Council members said early Friday afternoon they hadn't yet received a formal recommendation or report from City Administrator Steve Powers, who has been looking into the city's options and was expected to report back to council by Friday.

Powers couldn't be reached for comment on Friday, nor could Mayor John Hieftje.

It's also unclear whether there's enough support on council for going through with the purchase. It would take at least eight votes from the 11-member body and some council members have expressed hesitations about buying more real estate.

The city's primary interest in potentially purchasing the property is keeping it on the tax rolls. Under terms of a 2010 tax abatement received by Edwards Brothers, the city holds a right of first refusal before it can change hands.

If the city buys the property and flips it to a private developer, it could add to the city's tax base. But if the university acquires it, it would fall off the tax rolls.

Edwards Brothers is paying more than $180,000 in annual taxes on the property, and a future redevelopment could increase that amount.

Council Member Sally Hart Petersen, D-2nd Ward, said she sees three options: buy it and try to quickly sell it, buy it and hold onto it, or don't buy it.

"Honestly, I am learning toward buying it and holding it for a period of time, so we actually are holding cards with respect to the university," she said. "Maybe if we hold onto it, they can come to the table and we can have a discussion about how much property they really need. If we own the property, we have some leverage."

Petersen clarified that she's just talking about leverage in regard to the future of the site, not anything beyond that.

"Hopefully that will open the door to a productive dialogue with the university and perhaps they don't need all of it," she said, suggesting the city could rezone part of the property so there's commercial frontage on State Street and the university could use another portion of the property to expand its athletic campus.

It's unclear at this point if the City Council's discussion of whether to purchase the property will happen in the open or in closed session.

Petersen said she expects it to be an open debate, but Council Member Chuck Warpehoski, D-5th Ward, also is expecting a closed session.

"I don't know what the other City Council members are thinking on this because I haven't discussed it with them," Petersen said.

Warpehoski said he hasn't spoken to any of his colleagues about how they're leaning, so he's not sure how the vote will go.

"I can't call it at this point," he said, adding he's waiting to see the report from the city administrator before making up his own mind.

The city's 60-business-day window to purchase the property began ticking on Nov. 27 when Edwards Brothers informed the city of the deal with U-M.

"Our time is about up," Petersen said. "There might be one more meeting before the time is up and I think we're at the 11th hour here and we've got to make a decision."